****
The passage of time was difficult to register, but what felt like hours later, footsteps sounded outside the shed.
I stood up, heart hammering, and positioned myself where Emmie and I had talked about, behind the door, as she lay in plain sight on the ground.
When the door opened and Marty’s accomplice stepped fully into the shed, I waited a beat and then swung with all my might, cracking him across the back of his head. He grunted, collapsing on the ground.
“We have to run,” I commanded urgently as Emmie scrambled to stand up.
We emerged into the dwindling daylight, a quick sweep of the area revealing us to be in some sort of remote wooded area.
We didn’t spare longer than a second before we were off running.
“Stop!” Marty’s irate bellow sounded as gunfire cracked through the air, a bullet whizzing past my head.
Emmie was a few paces ahead of me. “Go!” I cried, knowing the next bullet might hit me if I tried to run.
We’d talked about this. If there was a chance for only one of us to escape, we’d take it in hopes of saving the other later.
She raced off, disappearing into the woods as I turned, hands up. He stalked toward me, his dark eyes bright with fury as he captured a handful of my hair and tugged me back to the shed.
The man I’d struck was still lying face down on the ground. The fact that I may have killed him didn’t sit well despite the circumstances.
“Oh, don’t worry.” Marty grinned as though reading my mind. “I finished him off for you. Glenn had served his purpose.”
He dropped to his haunches in front of me, toying with the gun, a maniacal grin on his face as I stared at him in horror.
“What do you want?”
“Respect. Power. I’ve been dealing with these biker assholes for years. Think they’re tough shit. Taking their money was too easy.” He snorted. “Too bad I had to share so much of it with Palmer. Time for one final payout before I leave town.”
“Marty!” A female voice sounded from off in the distance.
My head whipped in that direction. “Help!” I screamed.
Marty’s boom of laughter chilled me to the bone. “Teresa Palmer is the last person who’s gonna help you,” he sneered, just as a brunette not much older than I was stepped into the shed.
Dressed in a black pencil skirt and white blouse, she looked more like someone running for office rather than a kidnapper. “Have you made the call yet? I want to get the hell out of here. I’ve always hated this property.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste.
“Yes, I called Walker already,” Marty answered impatiently. “The funds will be transferred in the next hour.”
At the mention of Cash’s name my heart soared with hope. I knew he’d find me.
Somehow.
Chapter 27
CASH
“We should be about half a mile out from the turn,” Gunner shared as he studied the map of Norfolk, a tiny town south east of Hawthorne.
It had been Gunner who had discovered the connection between Teresa Palmer, Grant Palmer’s wife, now widow, and Marty. After that, we’d discovered an old cabin her family owned here in Norfolk. It was our best guess as to where they’d been keeping Layla and Emmie. I prayed we were right—and that we weren’t too late.
Riley was at the house, where the rest of the club and her grandmother had rallied around us. She was in good hands and well protected, but I’d feel a hell of a lot better when my family was back together again.
“Stop.” Gunner’s command was fierce, and I immediately slammed on the brakes just in time to see Emmie make her way through the tree line. “Fuck.” His voice was a mixture of fear and relief as he tore from the truck and raced for her stumbling form. I pulled the truck to the side of the road as Thorn, Cole, Cal, and Max, who were in the vehicle behind us, did the same.
Gunner had her up in his arms by the time I reached them, her face a mask of black and blue.
“Was Layla with you? Is she okay?” I demanded.
Her face crumpled, sending my heart plummeting. “We escaped together. I was a bit ahead of her when Marty fired his gun. She told me to keep going.” Her voice shook. “I can’t believe I left her. But I was trying to find help.”
“You did the right thing,” Gunner assured her as he stalked toward Cole’s truck with her wrapped in his arms. He deposited her carefully in the passenger seat, stooping down to get a look at her. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
She shook her head, her chin wobbling. “Layla was okay when I left her, but he had a gun, and I don’t know if something happened to her.” Tears rolled down her bruised cheeks.
My fists clenched at her words, and I took a heavy breath, trying to calm down. “I’m gonna go get her. First, I need you to tell me what we’re dealing with,” I ordered.
She didn’t hesitate, telling us everything she could about their ordeal.
“You didn’t see a woman?” Gunner asked her as he carefully swept a damp cloth over her face to clear the dirt away. His eyes hadn’t left her face since he’d set her down. Surprisingly, though he remained close by, Cal was letting Gunner take the lead in caring for his daughter.
“No. Just Marty and the guy who helped him. Layla got him pretty good on the head. But I don’t think she killed him.”
I didn’t want to wait a second longer to get my girl. I looked to Thorn and Max, knowing Gunner and Cal would want to stay with Emmie. “You two ready?”
“Cash, brother.”
I turned to Gunner, noting the uncertainty on his face. He was torn between his loyalty to me and wanting to see to Emmie. “I’m straight, Gun. See to your girl,” I assured him.
After another moment, he nodded. “Go bring her home.”
I shot a chin lift his way before stalking to my truck, Thorn and Max on my heels.
I pulled off the road a quarter of a mile before the turn up the gravel drive that would lead to the cabin in the woods. Though Emmie had only seen two men, we needed to be prepared for anything, and the element of surprise was critical.
We’d be on foot from here.
My training kicked in on this, my most critical mission. An occasional bird chirping was the only sound as we made our way through the pines toward the cabin and shed where Emmie had explained they’d been held.
I held my gun at the ready, Max and Thorn doing the same. I was prepared to shoot to kill, and after what they’d done to Layla, welcomed the opportunity.
I held up a hand when the run-down shed came into view. The house wasn’t in sight, but I knew from the map that it was roughly two hundred yards north of where we stood, just over the small hill in the distance.
There was no sound except for birds chirping and the wind rustling the trees above as we approached the shed as soundlessly as possible. When the form of a man lying on the ground came into view, I wondered if Layla had in fact killed him. A closer look revealed a bullet to the back.
Marty had finished the job.
The fact he’d murdered his accomplice said a lot about his state of mind and what he was willing to do. If I had been underestimating him before, I certainly wasn’t now.
The shed door lay open, and my heart sank to see that it was empty. They’d either moved Layla to the house or had already moved her somewhere else. We needed to act quickly.